LECTURE: Anna Celenza, "Music that Changed America"

Music that Changed AmericaAnna Celenza, author and the Thomas E. Caestecker Professor of Music at Georgetown University

Music permeates our lives. Thanks to technology, it is always with us... via the radio, our smart phones, TV commercials, film music, even the streamed music at our local malls and favorite restaurants. Technology has made it easy for us to put music in the background. The goal of this lecture is to bring it front and center again. As Professor Celenza demonstrates, music does not simply reflect culture... it changes it. To demonstrate just how such changes come about, she highlights four musical masterpieces that changed America. These include: an 18th-century drinking tune that defined American patriotism, an early 20th-century concert work that redefined Americans' concept of "music," a ballad from the 1930s that fueled the Civil Rights movement, and a 1980s pop album that changed American foreign policy.